Good afternoon! Just a few things Red Bulls related on this glorious Thursday. First, the Thierry Henry to the Red Bulls rumor is really, really heating up now. Earlier this week, there were several reports (including this one by Stefan Bondy, where he cited this article) saying that Henry has negotiated an exit from his Barcelona contract.

I think Don Garber and most other Major League Soccer custodians have given up on the New York Red Bulls ever amounting to anything other than a financial sinkhole and a clever fizzy water ad. It's what I get out of the push to put another team somewhere else in the New York metropolitan area. It's what I get out of AEG allowing itself to be bought out of the arena.

It's not surprising that many commentators have seen the demise of the LA Sol, regarded as the flagship team of WPS in its inaugural season last year, as a very bad thing. The LA Sol had the highest average attendance in the league, the highest sponsorship income, and thanks especially to Marta, the highest profile.

It has been announced that the David Beckham Academy in Carson, Califronia and another location in the United Kingdom have closed. Despite Beckham's best effort, his academies didn't attract enough volume. The academies are run by the owners of LA Galaxy, AEG, and Beckham's management, 19 Entertainment.

After months of trying to unload its half of the LA Sol, AEG withdrew its support for the team. The LA Sol, regular season champs, is no more.
The WPS's financial plan is not about turning a quick profit but developing a self-sustaining league. But AEG has never acted like it believed in the Sol, or women's soccer - instead, the structure around the team seemed intent on selling the women and the training staff short.

Can I answer this question? No. I'm far too biased...hey at least I admit it. However anyone who watches the video and is familiar with Stevie Me's past actions should be able to come to an educated opinion about his play. Unless you support Liverpool then you are blinded by your undying love for the cheating, diving, dirty playing wanker.

Let me tell you a story...
A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away...the evil empire (AEG) decided that they needed a marquee signing to increase ticket sales and publicity. As luck would have it, there was a Jedi nearing the end of his lightsabering days who was looking for one more battle to go into.

Spotted at the Lakers-Celtics game at the Staples Center over the weekend: Ronaldinho (and possibly disgraced NY governor Elliot Spitzer). Let the Gaucho-to-Galaxy rumors/conspiracy theories begin.

Rumors of Ronaldinho landing in LA with the Galaxy have circled back around, and I'm wondering what they mean. The unrealized reports of the summer, when Milan was dancing a contract samba with the superstar, and the Galaxy were said to be in the contest for his services, gave a sense of inevitability to the Brazilian coming Stateside.

The Los Angeles Sol is being sold by Anschutz Entertainment Group, which also operates the Galaxy, to a group of local investors. The pending sale, which the league says could be done by the coming week, comes as no surprise. The team reportedly lost around $2 million last year and AEG had always said that their involvement with the Sol and WPS was temporary.

Sports Business Daily (sister publication to the Sports Business Journal), is reporting that longtime FIFA sponsor Continental Tire has signed with MLS as a league sponsor. The multi-year deal provides signage at all MLS matches, hospitality arrangements at games and commercials on league broadcasts.

I don't care how many times you've read that headline the past 24 hours. It's the last time I'll get to use it, and I'm going to get milk out of the Comedy Turnip if it kills me.
Everyone now knows what has been obvious for weeks - the Sol have set. For a bad time, call 1-877-4-SOL-TIX.

Here's something that doesn't happen often on the soccer beat: I'm on the phone with WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci, and I get an alert that MLS has a somewhat major development. Fortunately, she understood when I stammered through my next question or two.
We'll look at the ramifications of both bits of news now, and by coin flip, we'll go with WPS losing the Los Angeles Sol, at least for the 2010 season:
-- What it means for WPS as a whole: Not much, really.

So on Friday Tom woke up and thought it would be fun to play the devil's advocate on the issue of the LA Sol folding. Really, it's good for the league! And everything's fine! And all you who think AEG should have given them more time to find a buyer, don't you know, WPS isn't a charity!

At the end of the day, if women's professional soccer is to survive in the long-run, it has to be because it's sustainable, not thanks to charity from Uncle Phil.

Phil Anshutz is one of America's soccer pioneers. Since Major League Soccer inception, Anschutz owned six franchises out of ten to keep the league alive. His right hand man, Tim Leiweke, has stated that AEG, Anschutz Entertainment Group, has invested up to $300M into the MLS since 1996. Earlier this week, Leiweke stated, ""So when I hear [the players] talk about striking and shutting [MLS] down,

So, on the heels of the Rumor That Won't Die Ronaldinho to LA Galaxy I got to pondering the actual economics of such a move. Not the economics of paying a guy like Ronaldinho and his gut the full amount of whatever it is the parties agree to, or even the relatively modest transfer fee AC Milan are said to want for him (10 million Euros).

Of course I'm referring to the Galaxy-Quakes game. Oliver Cromwell debuting for the Red Bulls? Pssh. The real action was in Carson. That game had everything! Except well-taken goals.
Well, and except the sell-out that a tense rivalry game deserved. I've been very patient with the new San Jose Earthquakes, but if they can't sell out a game with Landon Donovan at the peak of his prime, in the heat of a playoff race, for a game that featured all of the intensity and passion that MLS allegedly lacks?

Michael Steele - Getty Images

Mexican captain Rafael Marquez ... all indications say he'll be introduced as New York's third DP on Tuesday.

View full size photo »

The Red Bulls have called a news conference for Tuesday to introduce their newest (and third) Designated Player.

Nothing like being a tad bit late to the party huh? Tim Leiweke, the president and CEO of majority ownership group AEG which co-owns the Houston Dynamo told the club that next year they have the green light to get a big name for one of their Designated Player slots.

I say they are a tad late because they did nothing this year in terms of spending money on big talent and instead lost guys like Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The Houston Dynamo have big plans in the works.

In a recent interview, Tim Leiweke, the President of Dynamo co-owner AEG announced that plans are in place to break ground on the Dynamo's new stadium at the end of the year. The 110 million dollar facility will likely be finished during the summer of 2012 and will house the Dynamo and athletics for Texas Southern University.

A couple bits of information came my way in the wake of Tonya Antonucci's resignation as WPS commissioner. First, the league office being funded by national sponsorships was intended to be a feature, not a bug, as I might have implied. When I said:

Apparently the owners thought that 11% of the total budget was too much for a central office that couldn't keep teams in the field and was running at break-even while the teams themselves were floundering.

Totally copied promo pic from LA Galaxy official website

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FUTBOL!?!?!

Sorry. Couldn't resist. The overwhelming hype generated by the promotional engines of MLS, Red Bull, and AEG for today's match-up between the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls swept me away.

Dan Loney puzzles over Tim Leiweke's remark that the LA Galaxy are a "debt-free" operation:

I wonder who made up the shortfall - the league? AEG? An insurance policy on David Beckham's injury?
And I realize I'm conflating the Galaxy with the league, but I should have every right to - single entity, and so forth.

Sure Los Angeles doesn't have a NFL team to fill this potential venue (yet, I always believe someone will move there again) but the designers of this stadium in east LA have one big thing in mind, the World Cup.

Not to shabby looking either if you ask me.

The LA Galaxy owners AEG are the ones planning to build this stadium to lure a NFL team and the World Cup.

Abner Rogers won't be coaching Sol star Marta, left, any longer.

Sol Coach Abner Rogers, a notable absentee at the L.A. Sol's table at the Women's Professional Soccer draft today in Philadelphia, left the team Dec. 23, 100 Percent Soccer has learned.

The move was part of an organizational shake-up related to its pending sale to a new ownership group.

Like you...provided you're a diehard LA Sol fan...okay, so probably nothing like you...I read Nick Green's article the other week, about AEG bailing out of WPS, and "chimped out," as I believe the kids are saying these days.
However, I've been told not to worry.The Sol sure are acting like they're in turmoil, but it's still only registering as a 0.

I don't discuss a lot of women's soccer on this site but when I do it is usually some fairly large news (though if you are interested in writing about the WPS contact me). Unfortunately that is the case today. Arguable the best club on and off the field, the LA Sol will be ceasing it's operations tomorrow.

This isn't the way I wanted to get back to blogging about WPS, not at all. I get sick to my stomach when I see this:
"WPS 2009 Regular Season Champions - WPS discontinues operations of Los Angeles Sol - Dispersal draft scheduled for next week."
There's a lot of shock and outrage in the blogosphere, from Dan's screed, to Bill's comment in Andy Meade's post (which is somewhat hopefully in itself).

The Los Angeles Sol ceased operations on Thursday, WPS announced.

On Thursday, Women's Professional Soccer announced their cornerstone franchise the Los Angeles Sol will fold.

Formerly owned by Anschultz Entertainment Group (owners of the Los Angeles Galaxy, part-owners of the Houston Dynamo), the Sol leave WPS after an inaugural season where they finished with the league's best record before losing to Sky Blue FC in the finals.

Reading the reader just now, and quite bemused reading in the Sweeper covering Mansfield Town's "choose your own price" promotion to thank the fans for being so yada yada yada.
What would I voluntarily pay to watch Toronto FC? With Carver in charge, ten bucks. Cummins, meh, fifteen. Preki I'd pay full price as a starter, more for curiosity.

I share this mainly because it's the first time I've seen a member of team management (as opposed to an MLS head honcho) speak about the strike threat.

AEG's Tim Leiweke essentially threw down the gauntlet today in an interview with the LA Times.

"Here's our issue, and I'm speaking on behalf of AEG," Leiweke said in an interview with The Times on Monday.

So, AEG's Tim Leiweke came out yesterday in the LA Times and let the players have it a little.
Quote: "Here's our issue, and I'm speaking on behalf of AEG," Leiweke said in an interview with The Times on Monday. "We have spent to the tune of $300 million on soccer. We have spent money on facilities.

Major announcement from MLS tomorrow, LIVE from Toronto! Wonder what it could be!
....okay, it might be more than one thing. They might also announce that TFC, and other teams who so choose, can finally have their extra Designated Players, which will solve everything as well as making all the existing players better, just like it has in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.

I cribbed this excellent sit-down with AEG honcho Tim Leiweke from AOL Fanhouse. In it the LA Galaxy boss talks World Cup 2010, the CBA and non-amputee David Beckham. He seems kind of charged up on the topic of single-entity doesn't he? I mean he knows that the labor negotiations are over right?

The East London club has submitted a bid to take over the stadium in conjunction with Newham Council as part of a process being overseen by the Olympic Park Legacy Company. AEG, the operator of the O2, was also one of more than 100 parties to register an interest.
Soon to be vacant.

I think Don Garber and most other Major League Soccer custodians have given up on the New York Red Bulls ever amounting to anything other than a financial sinkhole and a clever fizzy water ad. It's what I get out of the push to put another team somewhere else in the New York metropolitan area. It's what I get out of AEG allowing itself to be bought out of the arena.

As much grief as we've given FC Dallas around here for their paltry attendance and apparent inability to leverage a beautiful new soccer-specific venue into real home support, there's no doubt that they're doing plenty right. The team sits solidly in a playoff spot after a spectacular run of form and their academy system is producing young talent at an impressive rate.

By Chris Wright

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has confirmed that the club have 'registered an interest' in upping sticks and moving to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, northeast London, after the culmination of the 2012 games renders it one of many vacant £multi-million follies.

Bitter?In her diary, which can be found in the Sun, poor Mrs. Brady says that Daniel Levy has been a very mean man indeed.
"Oh well, it's amazing how friends can surprise you. Spurs have slipped into the AEG bid for residency at the Olympic Stadium.
"Their chairman Daniel Levy recently called me 'one of his closest friends'.

As we do every so often, we thought we would take a look at some business stories covered by the mainstream. We'll start with the Canadian Wire Service which has named FUSION as the official sponsorship and advertising agency for the newly rebuilt BC Place. FUSION will largely be responsible for bringing sponsorship opportunities to BC Place and locating potential advertisers.